Media

My Collection...

I know ...I can't help it...thought I would share some pics of my collection. I have been adding Dodgers, etc and continue to do so as well as starting new builds. Enjoy

5 years ago by Brightwork

Directory

Air Sea Rescue Launch 123

Model is an early Vic Smeed semi scale Air Sea Rescue Launch. Built about 30 years ago but never finished. Now in the process of being finished. Still another gun turret to fit along with , mast, searchlight, captains windscreen, rescue nets etcetera. Still having problems with my Mtroniks speed controller BEC giving faulty signal to the receiver at voltages near to 6.7 volts. I have now installed a separate receiver battery and it appears the faulty signals have disappeared.

5 years ago by Will-I-Am

Blog

Rebuild rear deck Yorkshireman

Now all the flaky paint has been removed it's time to start rebuilding. A trip to the model shop for everything I thought I might need and a bit more just in case. sheet, flat, round and angled plastic in various sizes paint ,glue and piano wire should do for now. The first job I wanted to tackle was the rear deck bulkheads between the hull sides and the engine room, port and starboard. originally these had been badly fitted,and glued in place with mastic, filler, glue, bostick and other substances scientists are still trying to identify. I also thought that there should be watertight doors here, but through lack of drawings and photos I decided to use modellers licence and make my own. I fitted the bulkheads then fitted an oval shaped door on the surface,added hinges and handles plus a little brass porthole for effect. I then squared everything up and trimmed to size at deck level as the deck will be supported by this bulkhead later. Using some of the small plastic angle I super glued everything in place as this increases the glueing surface to be bonded and it worked quite well. So I added other angled strips to support the deck against the engine room sides. I still had the original main deck in one piece and thought about recutting a new one but the old was still useable and besides all the holes for the were in and I didn't fancy redriling them again. It came in handy for aligning all the parts and checking everything was square and true. Hope the photos give a gist of the text above.

5 years ago by Rogal118

Blog

Detailing the cabin – Part 2. The Roof Rails.

Some hardwood dowel is supplied in the Vintage Model Works kit for the that would look perfectly acceptable for most builders but as I’m going a bit overboard with the detailing of my boat I chose to fabricate mine differently to look a little more authentic. This involved selecting some obeche stripwood of suitable dimensions and carefully measuring and marking out the positions of the supporting legs and the spacing between them. Again I used some ‘photos of the NMM model as a guide for this. Fortunately I had previously treated myself to a vertical stand accessory for my Dremmel drill and I used this as a milling machine with the addition of a suitably sized sanding drum and an improvised ‘fence’ attached to the base of the stand. After making a test piece I also chose to attach a vacuum cleaner hose to the stand to extract the dust as the process generates quite a lot! Milling out the recesses in the obeche strip was a remarkably quick process but the subsequent hand finishing using abrasive paper glued around a dowel and some abrasive pads took a great deal longer to achieve the final profiles. I was very pleased with the final result and so I applied several coats of Teak stain before hand drilling a 2mm hole in each of the supporting legs to take a plasticard rod which was superglued in place. These form fixing spigots that will enable me to easily fix the rails through the roof without using epoxy or superglue on the roof surface but on the underside of the roof instead. The legs at each end of the were drilled to take 1mm rods as the legs are a bit smaller. The rails were then laid out on the cabin roof and with the aid of some masking tape the position of each plasticard rod was marked and then the drilling centres marked with an indent through the tape onto the roof. The fixing holes were all hand drilled through the roof and the pushed into place before being secured with a drop of superglue on the underside. When set the excess plastic rod was cut flush with the roof panel. The finished result is very pleasing 😀 as seen in the last pic along with a sneak preview of the searchlight.

5 years ago by robbob

Blog

Nearly there.

I have had a good run lately being able to spend a whole day per week on the Pilot Boat. The wiring and both of the circuit boards are now completed and working. I have experienced a small problem though. I have a Turnigy 9x transmitter with eight usable channels but however I configure it, I can only get two of the seven switches connected to channels. I have seen on youtube that by using mixes, more switches can be programmed. So far I have not found out how. There is lots of information for the er9x update but not the standard 9x. For now I will connect two channels to one Tx switch. I have now been busy fitting the deck out. I should complete this tomorrow after which all that remains is to finish painting the cabin seats and tables and fit them. I hope to have it on the river in three weeks time. I will place the final build update before I go. I will probable leave the deck off until it has been transported. Until then, if anyone can help with the mixes problem on my 9x, it would be very much appreciated.😉

5 years ago by MouldBuilder

Blog

Detailing the cabin – Part 1.

All the glazing on the cabin is fixed except for the forward windows on each side which are on runners for the crew to slide open. The glazing supplied in the kit for these sliding windows is 1mm Perspex so I made some runners by laminating two strips of 1.5mm obeche strip, one of which was shaped beforehand to be narrower and thus forming a rebate for the window to run in. The upper and lower runners for each side were made in this way. All the runners were then given a couple of coats of Teak stain before they were epoxied to the cabin sides, a temporary window template was used to get the spacing and positioning correct during this stage. A vertical piece was also made, with a rebate too, as an end stop which was also fixed in place. The template was then used to produce the actual windows which both have a handle glued to the outer rear edge with canopy glue and both run very well but with sufficient friction in the runners to hold them in although I will fit a removable retaining pin at the ends of the runners to prevent them from sliding out completely 😠. The two white metal navigation lights supplied in the kit were painted with some metallic silver acrylic and the lenses painted red and green, these fix onto some obeche pieces fashioned and formed to complete the lights, then both were Teak stained and epoxied to the top window runners. In part 2 I will tackle the for the cabin roof 😁.

5 years ago by robbob